Bag of Cats
by Shi-Toyu
Summary: After Tony was hurt by his teammates, Loki is dead set on getting revenge. He makes sure Tony is out of the way for the fight, but somehow the genius still manages to find trouble...Takes place after Protocol: Snowflake. FrostIronWinter Loki/Tony/Bucky


A/N: This fic takes place only a few hours after the event of Protocol: Snowflake in my Of Mischief and Metal series. Can be read on its own, though…kinda.

Bag of Cats

Tony had known Loki would be furious. That much was pretty obvious. He'd been possessive to an extreme since they'd started this whole thing, ever since that fantastic incident with the blindfold. (Tony still thought that was definitely his best idea ever. Pepper, for some reason, didn't agree.) So, when Loki had shown up at the tower in response to James's urgent summons and the soldier had proceeded to tell him what had happened in the lab (In an extremely biased way, if you asked Tony. It hadn't been _that_ bad, really. Sure, he'd have to get that wall replaced and, okay, his wrists were swelling and starting to ache like a son of a bitch, but this was such an over-reaction.) Tony hadn't expected it to go over well.

He'd kinda expected fire, honestly, and a few things exploding. He expected to probably have to jump between Loki and the elevator and stop him from heading down a few floors to rip Tony's teammates to shreds. Loki, however, had gone deathly quiet for a stretch of almost an entire minute before blinking out of existence. The feeling of dread in Tony's stomach wound all the tighter for it.

Loki had attacked the city less than an hour later, causing more than just a few things to explode. By the time the Avengers got there, he was prowling through Times Square, blowing up abandoned cars and laughing maniacally as their husks flipped through the air. His hair billowed around his face in a manner that made him look truly deranged but that Tony knew meant he was pissed off to the point of being 100% in control. The first thing the god did upon spotting Tony was blow him out of the sky, a calculated blast that sent him crashing through a glass storefront but was practically guaranteed not to hurt him. Captain America, on the other hand, got blasted into a car and then had a second car thrown at him. That was around the time Bruce turned into the Hulk.

Tony had to admit that Loki was damn good at what he did. He'd clearly earned the titles of Liesmith and Silvertongue. If Tony hadn't already known what was going on, he probably wouldn't have realized that Natasha and Steve were bearing the brunt of Loki's attack. Well, he wouldn't have realized it was on purpose, anyway. They just seemed to be having the worst luck. (Tony had to admit, as much as this was _clearly_ an overreaction on Loki's part, seeing Natasha covered in mustard and ketchup from that hotdog stand exploding was _hilarious_.)

The god summoned up a few illusions to keep them all occupied and confused as he flitted across the battlefield. Not even Tony could keep track of which one was the real Loki…until he got thrown down a side street and Loki landed on top of him before he could even get back to his feet. The god crouched over him and Tony felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought of those lips whispering into his ear without the suit in the way. He immediately cut off his coms to the others.

"Is it alright if I disable the suit? I'd appreciate having one less Avenger to worry about."

Tony popped the face plate on the suit, staring up at Loki, who still had one boot planted on his chest, off to the side of the arc reactor. He was always so cautious around the device that kept his lover alive. If it were any other villain, this would be the moment Tony told JARVIS to fire up the Unibeam.

"You can't kill them! You promised!"

Loki's grin sharpened and he threw his head back in laughter, but when he turned back his eyes were soft.

"And I shall not, my heart. You need never fear that I would break my word to you." All the mirth vanished from his features. "But they will be punished, have no doubts. They laid a hand upon what belongs to me. Tell me you would not do the same."

Tony sighed.

"I would. You know I would…Just…not too bad, okay? Please?"

Tony knew better than to try and convince Loki not to do it at all. It was obvious that he was taking the news of what happened even worse than Tony had expected him to. They would need to talk about this later, but he really just didn't have the time to explain why it wasn't that big of a deal. Loki would never stick around long enough to listen.

"As you wish, my darling. I do not believe I will be much longer. Vietnamese, tonight? I can pick up something from Pho Bac on my way home."

He was already pushing magic into the suit, cutting off power and rendering it useless. All Tony would have to do once he got it back to the tower was reboot it.

"No tripe. You know I hate tripe."

"I would not dream of it."

And then Loki was gone, whirling back toward the battle and leaving Tony stuck in his suit. The genius began the painstaking process of releasing each of the emergency manual switches until the suit finally unfolded around him. As he climbed out of the suit his gaze wondered back toward the battle being waged not two blocks away. Not even he was fool enough to think about heading back that way without the suit. Some days he really did hate how weak and pathetic he was compared to the others. As far as being a superhero went, Steve had been right back on the helicarrier during the invasion. He was nothing without his suit.

"Fuck it, Stark. Don't you dare even start on that shit. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, remember? Most people would kill to be in your shoes."

_Yeah,_ his mind traitorously supplied, _like Obie._

"Really? Now is so not the time for that."

He was probably very lucky that the fighting had already sent everyone running from the area so there was no one left around to hear him talking to himself. That was exactly the kind of thing he needed the tabloids to get ahold of. Puffing air out in frustration, he squatted down next to the suit to wait out the rest of the battle. Honestly, he didn't see what the big deal was. Sure, he'd gotten hurt and James had been discovered, but it wasn't really anyone else's fault. He _had_ been acting suspicious. It even had the upside of convincing James to move in. (Which meant that Tony gave it a week, tops, before Loki decided he was moving in, too.)

A sigh escaped him. Things had been going so well! Of course he'd had to fuck them up. But there was nothing to be done about that, he supposed. He'd made his bed, now he just had to sleep in it. Story of his life. A shuffling noise from within the alley he was next to drew his attention away from the fabulously self-berating speech he'd been about to launch into within his own head. His eyes swept the area, looking for the source.

"Uh, yeah. If there's somebody down there, it's way past time to get the Hell out of Dodge. Not sure if you noticed, but there's a supervillain throwdown going on just up the street."

There was no response and Tony cursed under his breath as he headed into the alley. Great. This was exactly the kind of thing he would expect to be the start of a terrible horror movie and, just like every good bimbo, he was gonna walk right into it. At least he had the slutty and hot parts of the stereotype down pat.

"Yeah, great going, Stark. Bet you're gonna have a great time getting shanked in an alley just blocks away from a fucking battle. And you know Loki's gonna get blamed for it. Jesus, he and James are gonna throw a fucking fit when you wind up dead!"

He'd nearly convinced himself to turn the fuck around and head back to the suit when movement caught his eye. The alley wasn't dark, not by any means, but it cut between two walls of businesses and was littered with trash and large metal bins. The movement came from just past one of the bins and whatever it was looked oddly plastic. It wasn't until he got closer that he realized it was actually something moving _inside_ of a garbage bag.

His heart clenched in his chest, mind calling up unwanted mental images from the news report just last year about the teenage mom who'd thrown her baby out with the garbage. The poor thing had been covered in ants when a neighbor had finally found it. Tony really didn't think he could handle finding a baby in the garbage right now, not with the day he'd been having. He really was not emotionally stable enough for that kind of shit. (And talk about the press having a field day!)

But he couldn't just leave it there. He knelt beside the bag cautiously, whatever was inside stilling as though it sensed someone nearby, and made a silent vow to burn these pants as soon as he was back at the tower when a wet substance began seeping through at the knee. His hands trembled as he reached for the top of the bag. Whoever left it there had knotted the top, forcing the billionaire to pull at the actual plastic to rip a hole in it. He almost felt like crying when a cat tumbled out instead of a baby.

It was kitten, small and shivering and a dusky orange color. Its eyes were _huge_ and staring up at Tony like it'd never seen a human before in its life. Another kitten poked its head out of the bag, this one more brown in coloration. Tony hurried to widen the hole, finally revealing three kittens and what he could only assume was their mother. He half expected to get mauled by the momma cat for getting anywhere near her babies, especially considering what they'd clearly been though, but she apparently had no problem climbing up on his lap and rubbing against his chest instead. She purred like a car that'd lost its muffler. It took Tony less than a millisecond to fall in love with them. He stroked the momma cat tentatively when the kittens tried to climb higher and higher on his body.

"Hey, there…You're a sweetie, aren't you?"

She seemed to purr louder in response. One of the kittens made a valiant leap toward his shoulder and dug its claws in when it couldn't quite make it.

"Ow! Fuck! What're you-Stop that!"

He pulled the little guy loose, holding him aloft to get a better look at the orange-haired monster. The kitten seemed highly offended that Tony would dare remove it from its climbing tree. From the ground, one of the other kittens started batting at the orange one's tail. These guys were definitely going to be a handful…He just needed to figure out how to get them back to the tower…


End file.
